A linguistic analysis conducted at Forbes’ request suggests Newsweek identified the wrong man as the creator of bitcoin last week.

The creator of bitcoin has been known only from online postings under the name Satoshi Nakamoto, generally believed to be a pseudonym.

The Newsweek report Thursday identified the creator of bitcoin as Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, who lives in a Los Angeles suburb.

The report sparked a media furor worthy of an Evelyn Waugh novel, replete with reporters camped outside Dorian Nakamoto’s house, an LA Freeway pursuit of the guy, and subsequent categorical denials by Dorian Nakamoto that he had anything to do with the creation of bitcoin.

Forbes said it asked a company that specializes in identifying the authors of anonymous texts to compare writing by Dorian Nakamoto to messages attributed to Bitcoin’s creator.

The analysis, using a technique called stylometry, focused on word length, frequently used words, groups of consecutive words, and parts of speech used.

It found that Dorian Nakamoto was less likely than previously identified candidates to be the creator of bitcoin.

Newsweek, and the story’s author, Leah McGrath Goodman, stand by the story. The magazine said in a statement Friday ”The facts as reported point toward Mr. Nakamoto’s role in the founding of Bitcoin.”

Goodman tweeted a response to the Forbes story Monday that ”my understanding of stylometry is that short passages do not yield great analysis.”

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